


You're Not Chassit Forever

by oppressa



Category: Dark Tower - Stephen King
Genre: Bullying, F/M, Hot Weather, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, Male-Female Friendship, Minor Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 15:38:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1823542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oppressa/pseuds/oppressa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie's a little vainer than he first appears.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Not Chassit Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Basically putting two minor characters I love that barely interact together. I know there's some discrepancy about whether Jamie's birthmark is on his hand or on his face, between the books and the graphic novels, but I've always pictured him with it over his eye/ cheek area...

She despairs of Jamie when it's a hot day and he won't take his hat off, stays in the shade, head buried in a book. It's just them beneath the tree this afternoon. The others have gone on a training exercise and she's glad. She can't stand Cuthbert, sometimes, he thinks he's oh-so-funny. Though he's not as bad as the people that like to tease Jamie.

This morning she'd overheard an older boy jealous of his marksmanship asking " _how'd he like to be thrashed till his ass is as red as his face_ "... it's only the same bullying he's put up with all his life, but if anyone threatened to do that to him seriously, Aileen would kill them. Not that Jamie can't fight his own battles, of course. He just prefers to act as if it doesn't bother him.

“I heard them, earlier.” She says, feeling enough time has passed by so she can bring it up.

Jamie clearly doesn't. He continues to pretend to read.

“I'm sorry.” She plunges on. “I truly admire you. If it were me, I would've shot a bolt at his –”

“It's not you though.” He slams the volume closed, glares at her. “It it? You're not the one with some big ugly blotch on your face for everyone to look at and laugh at –.” He stops, and drops his hawk-like eyes, embarrassed about getting angry. He almost never does, steadfast, calm Jamie, cool and clever under pressure. Perhaps he'll also never realise how much else he has going for him. 

She tips his hat back, places her palm right over the mark. He blushes but it still stands out on his skin, a dark wine stain against his pale face. Aileen's never cared about his face, only about him.

“I see you very well.” She says. “It's their problem if they can't look past it. All that matters to me is the expressions you make. If I can make you laugh. Whether I could see you were hurt. And I actually think you look good with it, truly.”

“No you don't.” He protests. “You're only saying, because you're my friend –“

“This is giving into it, Jamie.” She interrupts. “Don't you know that? Sitting back here all covered up, because you're ashamed...you've got nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Thanks for the advice, Aileen.” He says firmly, finally. “But you don't understand. You can't.”

She wants to tell him she's not happy about her looks either. She's Cort's niece yet everyone says she looks more like Marten's daughter. Still, it would be insensitive, there's no way she's suffered as much as him.

She obviously isn't going to win this way, so she kisses him, on his soft, neglected mouth. She can feel him all tense in the nape of his neck she's cradling under his sweaty hair. She strokes it to soothe him as she would a spooked horse, twisting the damp brown strands around her fingers.

“I _do_ think you look good.” She whispers, “Don't tell me what I can or can't think. This, it's, if you don't believe I ignore it, then know that I think it's special. It's _yours_. No one else I know has this.”

He's silent, staring at her, lost for words.

“We can still be friends.” She says, quickly. Maybe she moved too fast, maybe he hates her for it, he'll never talk to her again...

She's borne down on her back into a shadow that's lit up by his grin, and finds that Jamie smiling like that, particularly into a kiss, is simply her favourite thing in the whole of this world they live in.

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the Courteeners' _Not Nineteen Forever_... pfff, see what I did there folks? : >  
> ETA: Oh shit I forgot paper and I guess books therefore are a rarity in Roland's world, sorry...that's what happens when I write w/o a beta!


End file.
